Rahsaan Patterson

Soul vocalist and songwriter Rahsaan Patterson is another in the line of new-school R&B singers, such as Maxwell and Erykah Badu, who displayed a bit more integrity than most of the chart-toppers during the 1990s.

After singing in church since he was six years old, Patterson moved with his family from New York to California to star in the children’s show KIDS Incorporated, which also starred other future music stars like Fergie and Martika. He later moved back to the East Coast, resuming his career with small TV roles and assorted commercials, but eventually returned to Los Angeles in the early ‘90s, in order to taking his passion for music seriously: he started recording demos and contributing backing vocals to albums by Martika and Brandy, among others.

Throughout the years, Patterson proved himself to be a skilled songwriter, as well, by penning hits like Tevin Campbell’s “Back to the World” and Brandy’s “Baby.”

Those successes finally earned him a recording contract with MCA, which issued his self-titled debut album in early 1997, with Love in Stereo following two years later. After a hiatus from the performance spotlight, he released After Hours in August 2005 and Wines & Spirits in September 2007. These two albums made him one of the most appreciated artist in the underground R&B scene. The sprawling Bleuphoria, issued nearly four years after Wines & Spirits, was his most eclectic and creatively ambitious album, while his 2019 effort Heroes & Gods saw him coming back to his roots.